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Hi everybody, 

Another fishy day here on Quest with one big dorado caught and another free, leaping itself clear of its lure in an amazing display of tenacity and strength. We like it more and more when the fishes win here and even John, who was reeling it in, didn't throw the rod down this time and have a hissy fit (not that he ever does, I just like the image :). Go free, Princely Dorado. 

As much as the sailing today is like skimming over soft butter, it's hard not to think about the archipelago we've been dreaming about visiting for ten whole years and as the day goes on and we get closer to its shores, our heads are filling with helium gas despite trying to keep them tied down! We hope to enter Guadeloupe tomorrow through an anchorage on the west side of her butterfly-shaped island, St. Francois. We decided to go here first after making friends with a young couple (ie no children and less wrinkles) who left Las Palmas at the same time as us but who sprinted across the Atlantic while we slowed down and are getting their kiteboarding stuff out of their bilges as we speak. I thought maybe that could be the Captain's next chapter now that he's mastered the sailing challenge: kite surfing back to Borth. Grandpa; your baby's coming home!

So St Francois is a shallow bay, good for learning to kite surf whilst our friends, Christian and Betti have assured us that Guadeloupe is easy to enter, has Euros for currency, isn't as expensive as other islands for stocking up and yes, the piece-de-resistance; has a Carrefour. Hold on, let me just hold on to that for a sec. A Carrefour. I know! 

And not to spoil it by committing hubris and predicting too much but it struck me that tomorrow too is a special, good-arriving kind of day for another reason and that's the man who sat on my shoulder and calmed my nerves, especially a week ago when I got up in the middle of the night for my watch and was met with ginormous black waves ('Don't worry,' I could suddenly hear him as if he was there, as cool as ever with his slicked back-white hair and gap-toothed smile, 'you're going to be fine.') would have been 101 tomorrow. The same age incidentally, as his apartment number. Happy Birthday, Dziadek i dzienkuje dla wszisko and sorry I was so crap that summer when you tried to teach me Polish. I've got the points on the map, ready xx

Dobranoc everyone, and will be in touch again upon our arrival. Oh and the next blogs wont just be me prattling on but will be complete too with embarrassing photos! You're going to ask, 'Did you really shower for three whole weeks?!' Hopefully you can't smell us from there...

OMG, We're going to the Caribbean!!!!

Love from Quest and her crew xx